Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Robert Gagnon vs. Common Prooftexts used in support of Eternal Security/Perseverance of the Saints

In a series of recent (public) facebook posts, Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon has discussed many common "proof-texts" in support of Eternal Security/Perseverance of the Saints. Here are his discussions of Rom 8:35, 38-39,   1 Cor 9:24-27, John 10:28-30 and John 6:39

 

On Romans 8:35, 38-39

 

Many promoters of the OSAS or the superior POTS view of eternal security often make Rom 8:35, 38-39 a prime go-to text, which they usually summarize as “nothing can separate us from the love of God.” However, the text doesn’t say “nothing.” This is what the text says:

 

"What [or: who] will separate us from the love of Christ? Distress or tight straits or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powers—neither height nor depth—nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (GET)

 

The passage, great and comforting as it is, speaks only of things external to ourselves: persecution, a deprivation of material goods, angels and other spiritual powers, death.

 

The remark “nor any other creation [or: created thing]” (8:39) appears to refer primarily to the material structures of non-human creation or at least created things external to one’s own self (compare 8:18-23, which distinguishes “creation” from the sons or children of God).

 

The lists do not include “a life lived under the control of sin operating in human members” and for good reason: Paul has already stated clearly that such a life leads to death. For example,

 

"Do you not know that the one to whom you are presenting yourselves (as) slaves for obedience, you are slaves to the one whom you are obeying, (mark you) either of sin for death or of obedience for righteousness…. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 6:16, 21; GET)

 

"So then, brothers (and sisters), we are debtors not to the flesh, (that is,) to live in conformity to the flesh. For, if you continue to live in conformity to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by (means of) the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these (very ones) are sons (and daughters) of God." (Rom 8:12-14; GET)

 

Christians are not free to be under sin’s controlling influence. Those that are will not inherit eternal life. The children of God are those who are led by the Spirit of God, not those who live their lives in conformity to the flesh.

 

So with his remarks in 8:35, 38-39 Paul is not taking back warnings that he has just promoted in 6:1-8:17 (rejecting the view that because one is “under grace” one can live a sinful life and still inherit eternal life) and will restate later in 11:20-22 (about being cut off if they don’t continue in God’s kindness).

 

Believers must cooperate with the continuing work of grace in their lives. This cooperation is no way, shape, or form meritorious or deserved. We are justified by faith, but not faith as a one-time action that does not issue in a transformed life. The assurance about not being separated from the love of God in Christ does not apply to once-genuine believers who put themselves at high risk by discontinuing a life led by the Spirit of Christ. For those, Paul warns, separation is possible and separation presupposes a prior attachment now severed.

 

Paul is not promoting eternal insecurity. He wants genuine believers to be assured of inheritance of the Kingdom of God. But he does not want to give them a false assurance that they could depart egregiously, long-term, and without repentance from a Spirit-led life and still be confident of such inheritance.

 

On 1 Cor 9:24-27

 

One of the most remarkable texts of dozens that challenge both the OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved)/ES (Eternal Security) view of salvation and even the far better POTS (Preservation of the Saints) view is found in 1 Cor 9:24-27. There Paul cites himself as an example, making it clear that even he could yet be disqualified from the prize of eternal life if he should stop bringing his body under subjection to Christ’s lordship:

 

"Do you not know that those who are running in a stadium are all running but (only) one receives the prize? Be running like this in order that you may convincingly receive it. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in every way. So those people (do it) in order that they may receive a perishable wreath but we an imperishable one. Hence I am running like this: … I whip my body into shape and bring it into subjection (as though my slave), lest somehow, after proclaiming to others, I myself should come to be disqualified." (GET)

 

There can be no question that by “disqualified” Paul means not gaining the prize of eternal life. "The prize" is called "an imperishable wreath" and is distinguished from an earthly "perishable wreath." To not "receive the prize" of "an imperishable wreath" is to receive the prize of imperishability, or eternal life, in the Kingdom of God. The only other use of the adjective "imperishable" (aphthartos) in 1 Corinthians describes the acquisition of imperishability that comes with the resurrection from the dead:

 

"The trumpet will sound and the dead will rise imperishable and we shall all be changed. For it is necessary that this perishable (body) put on imperishability and this mortal (body) put on immortality. And when this perishable (body) puts on imperishability and this mortal (body) puts on immortality, then the word that is written shall come to pass: 'Death was swallowed up into Victory....'" (15:52-55; GET).

 

The only uses of the abstract noun "imperishability" (aphtharsia) likewise appear in 1 Corinthians only in this context of the resurrection from the dead (1 Cor 15:42, 50, 53-54; cp. Rom 2:7; 2 Tim 1:10). "So also the resurrection of the dead: (The body) is sown in corruption, it is raised in imperishability.... Flesh and blood is not able to inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit imperishability" (1 Cor 15:42, 50; GET).

 

Paul then in 1 Cor 9:24-27 is not distinguishing between different levels of imperishable existence but between not receiving imperishability (resurrection) and receiving it.

 

Paul makes similar remarks in Phil 3:8-14:

 

"I underwent the loss of† all things ... in order that I may gain Christ ... with the aim of knowing him and the power of his resurrection and partnership in‡ his sufferings, being (continually) conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain to the resurrection that is from the dead. Not that I already took (hold of this) or have already been perfected, but I pursue, if also I may overtake (it).... I pursue toward (the) goal for the prize of God’s calling above in Christ Jesus." (GET)

 

Here, as in 1 Cor 9:24-27, "the prize" (brabeion, used only in 1 Cor 9:24 and Phil 3:14 in the Bible) is spelled out again as the resurrection from the dead. Paul also speaks similarly here of a rigorous regiment needed in order to attain this prize, which prize he stresses he has not yet attained and even might not attain should he lapse in this regiment: "partnership in Christ's sufferings, being (continually) conformed to Christ's death, if somehow I may attain to the resurrection.... Not that I already took (hold of this) or have already been perfected, but I pursue, if also I may overtake (it)."

 

That the prize in 1 Cor 9:24-27 is imperishable life is evident also from his application of this point to his warnings aimed at the Corinthians. They think their place in the Kingdom is assured but Paul compares their situation to God's judgment of the wilderness generation, who, though experiencing similar tokens of salvation (imprints of the salvation-reality experienced by Christians), could be thwarted from entry into "the promised land" (the Kingdom of God) by idolatry and sexual immorality. Paul isn't warning the Corinthian believers merely that they might be lowered a few rungs on the heavenly tiers but rather that they might not make it at all if they continue to put God "to the test."

 

Nor can anyone doubt that Paul had made a genuine confession of faith in Christ. Yet he still considers it a possibility that he could be excluded from God’s kingdom if he didn’t continue running the race and bringing his body into subjection.

 

Paul is not making this observation only for his own sake; he applies it to the Corinthians who apparently hold something akin to the modern OSAS view. Paul recounted to them the Old Testament story of the destruction of the wilderness generation as God’s judgment for their involvement in idolatry and sexual immorality (1 Cor 10:1-13):

 

"I do not want you to be ignorant (of the fact), brothers (and sisters), that our fathers [i.e. ancestors] all were under the cloud and all went through the sea. And all were baptized [i.e., immersed, plunged] into Moses in [i.e., by means of] the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that was following (them), and the rock was the Christ. But God did not think well of most of them, for they were strewn in the desert.

 

"Now these things became examples (tupoi) for us, in order that we might not be desirers of evil things, just as those (persons) also desired. Nor become idolaters, just as some of them (were), as (indeed) it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink and stood up to play” [Exod 32:6]. Nor let us commit sexual immorality, just as some of them committed sexual immorality and fell in one day twenty-three thousand. Nor let us put Christ [or: the Lord] to the test, just as some of them put (him) to the test and were killed by the serpents. Nor let us grumble, as some of them grumbled and were killed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to those (persons) as an example (to us) [or: in an archetypal manner; Gk. tupikōs], and they were written with a view for our admonition, onto whom the ends of the ages have come down. So let the one who thinks that he stands watch out lest he falls. No test has taken you except a human one [or: one common to humanity; i.e., bearable]. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able (to bear) but will make with the test also the way out in order that you may be able to bear up (under it)." (GET)

 

The point of Paul’s midrash (exposition) of Israel’s disastrous desert wanderings after their exodus from Egypt is clearly to warn the Corinthians not to become presumptuous through some eternal security doctrine. Israel’s wilderness generation had tokens of salvation comparable to that of the Corinthian believers: a “baptism” of sorts “into Moses” as well as partaking of “spiritual food and drink.”

 

True, their tokens of salvation were shadows or archetypes prefiguring the reality of Christian experience. Nonetheless, they were real experiences of God’s deliverance. Yet because of engaging in idolatry and sexual immorality hardly any of them made it to the promised land—an image that prefigures Christian inheritance of the kingdom of God in the age to come.

 

Paul’s point is to warn the Corinthians: Even though you have been incorporated into Christ and regularly confirm that relationship in the celebration of the Eucharist, you too could still fall if you persist in idolatry (compare the rebuke in the rest of ch. 10 about not going to an idol’s temple) and sexual immorality (compare the case of the incestuous man in chs. 5-6).

 

It is in connection with this warning that Paul wants the Corinthians to think again of his metaphor in 9:27-29 of not winning the wreath of imperishability if he slacks off in the race.

 

The assurances at the end in 10:12-13 regarding God’s faithfulness to restrict the testing to a degree that they can endure (or else make a way of escape) do not take back the previous warning that they could yet fail to pass the test. The Corinthians would endure or take the ‘way out” precisely by not engaging in idolatry and/or sexual immorality. God has done everything on his part to make it possible for the Corinthians to “flee sexual immorality” (6:18) and “flee from idolatry” (10:14). So they have not excuse for not fleeing such evils and only themselves to blame if they should fall.

 

Paul does not encourage the Corinthians to reassure themselves that they could never fall away. On the contrary he insists that “the one who thinks that he stands should watch out lest he falls.” The prospect of falling is real. It is the reason for the all-too-genuine warning. What is at stake for the Corinthian believers? Paul has already told them in 6:9-10: The sexually immoral and idolaters will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

It is important to remember here that Paul is certain not only that he is a genuine believer but also that the Corinthians are. He repeatedly refers to their reception of the Spirit of Christ, from the thanksgiving in 1:4-9 on. In the midrash (exposition) of Israel's wilderness wanderings, he recognizes that the Corinthians have indeed left "Egypt" (the old pre-Christian life) and experienced redemption. But they haven't yet made it to the promised land (for the Corinthians, the Kingdom of God). If they don't flee idolatry and sexual immorality, he warns them, they might not make it.

 

This possible fate does not lead Paul to deny that they were ever genuine believers who possessed the Spirit of Christ, as the POTS view would require. In fact, in treating the case of the incestuous man (1 Cor 5), he offers as an analogy a genuine believer who is a "member of Christ's body," "joined to the Lord" and "one Spirit with him," and whose body is "a temple of the Holy Spirit in you," and who have already been "bought with a price," the price of Christ's atoning death (6:15-20).

 

Being a genuine believer does not make the commission of egregious unrepentant sin better (on the false assumption that such a one has no worry about losing salvation). It makes it worse, because in a perverse way it involves Christ's temple in the sin. Paul's warnings to the Corinthians presumes the genuineness of their faith and yet still warns them of future disqualification.

 

Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians to believe that, even though, they were genuine members of Christ's body, they could yet fall away from the faith to their eternal ruin should they now be overtaken by the sins of idolatry and sexual immorality.

 

On John 10:28-30

 

Another favorite text from the Gospel of John that OSAS (Once-Saved-Always-Saved) Christians often cite, in addition to John 6:39 treated in a prior post, is John 10:28-30:

 

"And I give [my sheep] eternal life, and they shall certainly never perish; and no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father who has given (them) to me [or read with other significant manuscripts: what my Father has given] is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one."

 

The passage provides an assurance to Jesus’ “sheep” that no “wolves” coming from outside are strong enough to get at the sheep that remain in his fold (contrast 10:12 which refers to a wolf “snatching” the sheep from “the hired help”).

 

It also defines “the sheep” in 10:27 as those who “are listening to my voice” and “are following me.” There is no assurance given here that those who stop hearing Jesus’ voice and following him will not perish. This is evident from other texts in John that supply conditions or qualifications, for example (emphases added):

 

"I am the light of the world. The one who follows me shall certainly not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life." (8:12)

 

"So Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed him, 'If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples.'" (8:31)

 

"Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall certainly never see death." (8:51)

 

"The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him." (14:21)

 

"If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept the commandments of my Father and remain in his love…. You are my friends if you are doing what I am commanding you." (15:10)

 

An example of those who did not so remain in Jesus’ word and continue to follow him appears in John 6:66-71. The text speaks of “many of his disciples” who no longer followed Jesus after his eat-my-flesh-and-drink-my-blood speech.

 

Most important of all is the vine-branches analogy in John 15 (discussed in the prior post), which makes clear that believers who are “in Christ” are removed by God if they do not “bear fruit.” Those that are removed are thrown “into the fire.”

 

It is important to note here that exclusion from God’s kingdom for failure to bear fruit does not imply that those who do bear fruit in some way merit God’s kindness. The branch produces fruit only if it remains in the vine: “Without me you can do nothing.” Only the Father and the Son get the credit for our transformed lives.

 

On John 6:39

 

John 6:39 is one of the main proof texts used to promote a doctrine of eternal security. Taken in isolation it seems to demonstrate just that: "This is the will of the One who sent me, that everything that he has given me I will not lose from it (i.e., that I will not lose anything of what he has given me), but I will raise it up on the last day."

 

In the context of the whole of John's Gospel, however, it does not prove eternal security. It demonstrates what Jesus reiterates in the very next verse, "that everyone who is seeing the Son and believing in him has eternal life, and I (Jesus) will raise him up on the last day." But the "believing in him" is not the one-time act that many promoters of eternal security make it out to be; rather it is a continuous state of being that must persist for the whole of one's Christian life (a view of faith that agrees with Paul's own: Gal 2:19-20; 1 Cor 15:1-2; Rom 1:17; etc.).

 

Those who do not persist in faith by failing to bear fruit (i.e., to live a transformed life) are presented in John 15:1-17 as being like branches that are cut off from the Vine (Christ) and thrown into the fire to be destroyed. Only those who persist in faith show themselves to be "given" to Christ by God and not lost by Jesus -- not "lost" in the sense of failing to be raised up on the last day.

 

Those who persist in faith, which is shown by bearing fruit, Jesus will not lose but will raise up on the last day. Losing refers to not resurrecting those who persist in faith (not those who at one time in their life had faith in Christ). Jesus is assuring his followers that if they continue in faith he will resurrect them in the Kingdom to come. He is not assuring them that a one-time act of faith gives them an irrevocable ticket to the Kingdom.

 

John 15 is clear that "every branch in me that does not bear fruit [my Father] takes away" (v. 2). That is why Jesus emphasizes that those who believe in him must "remain (abide, stay) in me" (v. 4). But "if anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch and dries up and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned" (v. 6). Only "if you keep the commandments" do you "remain in my love" (v. 10).

 

Obviously the image of branches connected to the vine represents persons who are genuinely "in Christ" through the possession of his Spirit. The removal of branches that do not bear fruit and their throwing into the fire is a clear illustration of the falling away of genuine believers who no longer continue to keep his commandments and exhibit a transformed life.

 

The metaphor of the vine and the branches in John 15 is similar to the image of the cultivated olive tree offered by the apostle Paul in Romans 11:16-24. In Romans 11:20-22, Paul, continuing his "Gentile grafting" metaphor, states clearly to the Gentile believers in Rome: "Don’t be high-minded (about being incorporated into the Israel tree from which 'some' Israel branches were broken off), but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. See then the kindness and severity of God: on the one hand, toward those who fell, severity; on the other hand, toward you the kindness of God, if (Gk. ean) you remain [stay, abide, continue] in the kindness, since (otherwise) you too will be cut off."

 

The "if" clause is a clear condition and an implicit warning for those who don't continue in God's kindness by exhibiting a transformed life (see 12:1-2). Paul doesn't say that the Gentile believers only appear to be grafted into the cultivated olive tree. God has genuinely grafted them in, which is a metaphor for being within the sphere of salvation. The breaking off of "some" Israel branches (11:17) is a statement about removal (at least for the time being) of unbelieving Jews from the sphere of salvation. The cutting of Gentile branches must refer to the same thing: removal from the sphere of salvation after having once been in it.

 

One could argue that Paul and John don't really mean what they are saying; or that by threatening genuine believers with loss of salvation Paul and John effect their retention in the fold (i.e., the warnings are God's perfectly effective means of keeping all believers eternally secure, without which they might fall). But one cannot say that Paul and John do not want their audience of believers in Christ to think that they can never fall away. The analogy works only the premise that they can, if they do not continue in faith, which is presented as a real possibility.

 

The horticulture analogy works only if their audience is persuaded to believe that they could fall away. So this is manifestly what Paul and John want their audience to believe (which, incidentally, does not translate into eternal insecurity). When we assure believers that they can never fall away once they make a single genuine confession of faith in Christ, we undo what Paul and John (and Jesus, and the writers of Hebrews, the Petrine epistles, James, and Revelation) are attempting to achieve: Keeping them vigilant in the faith through a dire warning of loss of salvation.